Program Notes November 9, 2019 Wagnerian Music Dramas
Program Notes November 9, 2019 Wagnerian music dramas. Sibelius soured on Wagner’s The Swan of Tuonela from Four Legends compositional methods soon thereafter, and The Swan from the Kalevala, Op. 22 of Tuonela was published with three other short symphonic poems as the suite Four Legends from JEAN SIBELIUS (1965 - 1957) the Kalevala, Op. 22. Each of the four works depicts an adventure from the life of the mythic Finnish hero As Jean Sibelius came to maturity as man and Lemminkäinen, the central figure of the Kalevala, musician, his country lived under the growing A the national epic of Finland. threat of absorption into the Russian Empire. Finland Sibelius inscribed the following words on the score: had been a Grand Duchy of Russia since 1809, but “Tuonela, the land of death, the hell of it enjoyed a great degree of autonomous freedom, Finnish mythology, is surrounded by a with its own parliament and court system. Starting large river of black waters and a rapid during the reign of Czar Alexander III and continuing current, in which The Swan of Tuonela with Nicolas II, Russia began to limit the rights of glides majestically, singing.“ Finns, curtailing the authority of parliament, mandating Sibelius scores the work for solo English horn, military service and eventually dissolving the oboe, bass clarinet, two bassoons, four horns, three Finnish army. trombones, timpani, bass drum, harp and muted Rather than taking up arms, the Finns fought back strings – an ensemble of dark orchestral colors suitable with their culture against the encroachment on their for depicting the desolation of Tuonela.
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